Generally, in the construction of new siding, stone ballast must be applied with large hopper cars pulled or pushed by a locomotive and crew. If not possible to get a ballast train, which is expensive, a loader of some type must be used to fill up track with stone which is very time consuming. With a train or loaders, the stone covers the cross ties up to the top of the rails. To surface or raise this track by lowering the elevation of the ballast one can either use expensive tamping machines, or a ballast regulator which shape and move ballast. Most often if one has to raise the track six inches or more the filling up of track must be repeated a second time.
If tamping is done by hand, as opposed to machine, then a lot of shoveling is required which makes it more expensive and time consiming. In using the apparatus of the present invention as opposed to tampers, ballast regulators, work trains, or the like, one can in the course of building the track, jack up the track to the desired elevation. This allows one to drive between the jacks while depositing stone to just the desired amount for easy tamping. No shoveling is required, and no jack holes need to be dug to raise the track. Ties do not have to be uncovered by hand in order to tamp them. Upon tamping the track it is then aligned with no large amount of stone, yet on the outside heads of ties, the track can be easily placed on the final line without machines.
When lining is complete, the apparatus of this invention then adds final stone to centers and heads, after which it puts in the outside ballast line. All of this is accomplished with a minimum of labor. This saves considerable amount of stone that is not wasted by putting in too much.
This machine has a good potential for use in yards, or for filling in rock at washouts. With just a minimum amount of track support this machine can replace rock as it proceeds along washout area. This would eliminate special high rail dump truck loaders or the like. At the washout area and in many cases the area is very inaccessible and has room for only one machine which most often cannot get off the tracks.
This machine cuts the labor cost involved in distributing rock, surfacing and lining nearly 75 percent, not to mention the amount saved in stone material. Primarily this machine is for use by small railroad lines and contractors who cannot afford large, and expensive machines that serve only one of several basic functions required to complete the work.
The apparatus itself includes a frame mounted on wheels with the wheels engageable with the railroad tracks. Hopper means having an open top and an open bottom is supported by the frame and acts as a flow through conduit for the ballast which takes the form of small stones or gravel. A horizontally disposed door supported by a fixed chute means beneath the frame controls the distribution of ballast between the railroad tracks. Vertically disposed doors mounted in pivotally movable chute means on opposite sides of the fixed chute means controls the distribution of ballast laterally just beyond the heads of the cross ties. Finally, a first resiliently mounted blade means is engageable with any excess ballast deposited between the railroad tracks and a pair of resiliently mounted blade means on opposite sides of the frame clear any excess ballast from the heads of the cross ties.
Specially positioned baffle means cooperate with the location of the horizontally mounted door to insure that ballast is delivered from the hopper efficiently and assists in avoiding clogging of the ballast within the hopper and chute means. The latter converge to a smaller cross sectional area as they extend laterally outwardly from the exit of the hopper and effectively throttle the delivery of the ballast at the heads of the cross ties thereby assisting in delivering too much ballast in any given location. The system also eliminates so much of the shoveling heretofore required that substantially more track can be graded per unit time than was heretofore possible.